What happens if an Israeli will leaves an apartment that was sold before the testator died?

Israeli succession law separates two kinds of beneficiary. An heir (yoresh) takes a share of the whole estate, expressed as a fraction or as the residue left after other gifts. A legatee (mekabel manah) takes one identified thing: this apartment, that bank account, a fixed sum of money. Section 51 ties the legacy to the asset itself, so once the asset has left the estate the legacy has nothing left to attach to. The Registrar of Inheritance Affairs will not resolve a genuine dispute of this kind. The file transfers to the Family Court, which applies the interpretation rule in Section 54 and reads the will as a whole to establish what the testator meant.

Foreign families often discover the problem months after the funeral, when the Tel Aviv or Jerusalem apartment named in a will drafted twenty years earlier turns out to have been sold to pay for nursing care. Arguing that the sale proceeds should follow the gift is possible, but the burden sits squarely on the disappointed beneficiary and the outcome depends on the wording of the will. The reliable answer is drafting. Percentage shares of the estate survive every change of asset, and a substitution clause can direct that any replacement property or the net proceeds pass to the same person. Anyone who updates or revokes an Israeli will after selling property removes the argument before it starts.

From the full guide: Israeli Will Requirements: How to Write a Valid Will in Israel

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